


Women of the Wastes

by Neriad13



Category: Fallout 3, Fallout 4, Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: Gen, Ilustrated
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-04
Updated: 2016-10-04
Packaged: 2018-08-19 14:51:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8212957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neriad13/pseuds/Neriad13
Summary: Illustrations and stories of three women who changed their worlds.





	

_Lone Wanderer Sarah_

I wanted to save everyone - the homeless ghouls, the people who hated them, the lost, the angry, the violent. I tried to save them from themselves. I talked the hopeless off of rooftops. I hurled my body between harm and the helpless, caring little for the scars I might get along the way. I wanted to believe that there was something worthwhile in everyone, no matter how cruel. I must have staked my life on that belief dozens of times.

But “Reason” and “the Capitol Waste” are two things that are not often on speaking terms. I got hurt. The best laid of plans could not have eliminated the possibility of failure. Were there not moments where things would have been less catastrophic had I not left well enough alone?

And so, my heart hardened but not broken, a single year in the Wastes weighing the same upon me as ten underground, my policy became this:

“Walk softly and carry a big nuke.”

_Courier Six_

“That courier? Yeah, I met her once. Called herself ‘Six.’ I ain’t ever heard any other name. An’ I don’t dare question it neither.”

“The boss and I was playin’ a round at the tables. I was on this mean losing streak and Benny - he just keeps pocketing caps like no tomorrow. But I’m about to lay out this real straight hand and in walks this mangy broad. Looks like hell - like she ain’t slept for a month. Or eaten neither.”

“An’ Benny - he just goes white. Not a drop a’ blood in his face.”

“He tries to brush her off, play it cool. But the chick ain’t takin’ none of it. She opens her yawp and Benny shushes her up real fast. I don’t know what it was about - Benny’s always got some moneymaker on the side gone wrong. Nothin’ new there.”

“He wants to cut her in on the deal. Talk in private.”

“I get this real bad feelin’ about the whole shebang and say as much to the boss. He jus’ pats his lapel and says he’s got ‘insurance’ if the mole rat shit hits the ceiling fan.”

“So, I trail them upstairs and put my ear on the keyhole. I get there, maybe a little over halfway through negotiations, ya dig? I ain’t heard the details - but the broad’s drivin’ a real hard one. And Benny ain’t bitin’.”

“‘The kit an’ caboodle’ she says, ‘Everything you know, the chip, the robot - an’ in exchange, you walk.’”

“My heart starts beating real fast at that. I grab for my gun, but it jus’ slips out of my damn butterfingers. I go chasin’ after it - an’ there’s gunshots. Two of ‘em.”

“An’ then…I hear this sound. Like a scream, but worse. I can’t place if it’s Benny or not an’ jus’ when I’m about to bust in there - ”

“- the door slams open an’ she’s…oh…God…fuck…”

“It’s alright. Take as long as you like.”

“Shit.”

“It’s…she’s got Benny’s head on a string! That bitch looks me dead in the eye and it’s all I can do to not turn tail! There’s this roar in my ears and I can’t see straight and there’s nothin’, there ain’t nothin’ I can…”

“An’ she jus’ keeps walkin’, leavin’ this trail of blood down the hall. The carpets still ain’t clean! You think a damn high roller wants to pay for that? Fuck her.”

“Nobody stops ‘er. All the Chairmen? They jus’ back the fuck off. Open the damn door like a goddamn gentleman. I ain’t see ‘er since.”

“And you’re askin’ if that damn courier’s got the balls to ice Lanius? Has a deathclaws got claws? Ain’t a cazador got poison?”

“Here’s my fuckin’ answer; if it ever turns out that she’s got some beef wit’ me…I ain’t gettin’ shut-eye anymore. Lanius ain’t nothin’ but a dead man.”

_Sole Survivor Alaina_

“C’mon. Just say it. I know that’s what this is really about. Special Edition: The Woman Who Screwed the Commonwealth! The Truth Behind the Face Who Launched a Thousand Synths! You want to know why.”

“Blue! It isn’t like that. Look…I’m…as a friend, okay? I’m worried about you. The way you talk sometimes…”

“Well…someone should know, at least. And there aren’t…so many ears willing to listen, so…”

“This is going to sound awful, I know, but…they have showers down there. How water that doesn’t smell like rust. Bathrobes and fluffy slippers and soap that doesn’t turn your skin gray…”

“The first thing I did was step into that shower. I was filthy - there must have been half a year’s worth of dirt in that drain. All those months of running, hiding, never knowing if some big green paloonka was going to end it while I slept. If my s-son w-was…”

“I sobbed like the whole weight of the world was crushing me in that shower. It was the first time I’d cried since…well, you know. I never allowed myself to. There was always too much I had do before I could give in.”

“And when I stepped out there, smelling of rosebushes that I never thought I’d see again, everyone was just so kind. They treated me like family, showed me their work, their children. And Shaun! It took a bit of getting used to, but…I had missed my boy so badly. Being with him, being there…it was like I was human again. I’m not sure you can understand. It’s so much worse, living in the wastes when you know what it was like before.”

“But…there’s always someone knocking on the Institute’s door. I was a plant - my mission, to take it down from the inside. Arm the synths for a rebellion. Dismantle everything my son had built. I wanted to do it at first; I was angry and sick with bereavement and couldn’t understand why things had happened as they had. But the longer I spent down there, the more my heart ached at the idea.”

“In the end…it hurt less to destroy the things that sought to undermine us.”

“Was I wrong? I…might have been. The blood on my hands says so. I can see it sometimes. At night. T-That line of rust caught under my fingernails, that smell of copper and ozone that a thousands baths in that goddamn shower won’t ever…”

“Ah…it’s getting late, isn’t it? I need to…Shaun’s got to be missing me by now. I promised I’d bring him some new toys when I got back. The market’s still open, right?”


End file.
